In certain applications such as construction, where it is desired to move some combination of soil, rocks, and other debris, a type of device known as a suction (or vacuum) evacuator can be used (e.g., such as may be produced by Vac-Tron Equipment LLC or McLaughlin). This is typically a vehicle that removes materials from a hole on land or removes heavy debris on land. It may produce powerful suction through a wide pipe and pass the soil and debris to a storage tank. Typically the soil and debris also includes water; either water that was present at the evacuation site or water that has been added to the site such as from water jets that are often used in suction evacuation to break up the dirt and debris.
Of course, one of the issues with such an evacuation method is how to dispose of the materials that have been evacuated. Most often, the contents of suction evacuators are eventually placed into a cement pond or other type of location/structure designed for evaporation of the water therein. Once the water is evaporated, the remaining materials can be hauled to a landfill or otherwise disposed of.
Mud recycling equipment can perform some of the above functions, but they are not designed to handle heavy rock and pieces of pavement and concrete such as may be a portion of the evacuated materials. The mud recycling equipment may become damaged if such materials are fed to the mud recycling equipment.
Shakers with input hoppers could provide some of the above functions, but they are designed in a size, shape, and geometry that do not work well with suction evacuator vehicles.
It is against this background that the techniques described herein have been developed.